


Not Hell

by kipnotize



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Because Levi really likes Eren's video games too, Demon AU, Eren will have none of his emotionless bullshit, He kicks ass though, Hell, Levi really likes Eren's cookies, Levi's a lonely little monster, M/M, No seriously Eren is just really fucking awesome in the kitchen, Underworld, cook!eren, demon!Levi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-02
Packaged: 2018-04-12 15:52:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4485595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kipnotize/pseuds/kipnotize
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi has lived so many millennia in the Underworld that he's forgotten what the warmth of the human realm feels like, and Eren decides as his summoner it's up to him to show him. Also with Levi being a tease and Eren giving really great hugs</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Hell

Levi's POV

 

The first time I received his summons, I was unspeakably bored. 

Being a First Rank demon meant I had the privilege to ignore summons I received from the human realm, and on any other given day I would've used that privilege to avoid having to deal with the filthy lifestyles of the humans above. That particular day, however, I had spent lounging around, pointed black fingernails tapping out nameless tunes on curved horns just to feel the vibration travel through my head, and I had guessed I could at least amuse myself by scaring the shit out of whoever had attempted to summon me. 

It had turned out to be a boy, perhaps no older than 15, with tousled brown hair and glowing green eyes that grew impossibly wide when they met mine. He was tall but not quite lanky, and he held an old book I assumed was what he found the instructions to summon me in. We seemed to be in the kid's basement, the room dank and musty and not at all clean, but I could smell the promise of good food upstairs, and after spending so long in the Underworld where no one bothers to eat simply because they don't have to... Well, I began to think that perhaps this summons wouldn't be too shifty after all. I looked down, curious as to what the wonderstruck boy had offered as a sacrifice-

"That is fucking disgusting." And then I was gone, not caring to spend a single moment more in the human's realm if it meant I had to stand in such close proximity to a severed goat's head and what appeared to be a goblet half full of its blood.

It was slightly disappointing, being once more stuck in a land of fear and hatred and no food, but at least it was clean. I could simply take the next summons, perhaps establish a connection through the poor fool who tried to use me as an assistant, as a slave, and then I could go between realms as long as the one responsible for my summons didn't break the connection. If I was lucky, I could get at least a couple days from it, and perhaps I'd get another summons as quickly as within a century...

...or within the week. I was almost positive I was imagining the feeling, the itchy tingling in the back of my mind that told me to go, to follow the summons, but it was there, and to my astonishment the smell that came with it was identical to the one that had come the last time I had gotten a summons, not four days ago.

It was the same kid, expression concentrated and looking as if he needed to take a shit, and I found myself watching him chant for a moment, unaware I had already arrived though I was positive the smell of sulfur had followed me into the room. He was an idiot to try to summon me a second time, especially since I had made it clear I hadn't been pleased the first time, but a glance around the room told me I wouldn't be quite so hasty to leave this time around. The walls were free of grime, the shelves holding useless knick-knacks dusted and the floor still carrying the faint scent of whatever soap he had used to scrub at it.

A plate of chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk lay at my feet, the condensation on the outside of the cup tipping me off to its cool temperature and coaxing me into reaching down to grab it.

"Oh my fucking-" I lowered the glass from my lips at the words., licking the milk that clung to my upper lip and flicking my tail with satisfaction. The brunet that had summoned me seemed to have just now grown aware of my presence, and I watched amused as he nearly dropped his book in shock. "U-um, hello... I hope... It's not disgusting?" 

I snorted, not bothering to answer as I squatted down to momentarily examine the floor before deeming it clean enough to sit on, settling down and picking up one of the cookies. They were still warm, the chocolate melted and the golden-brown complexion of the cookie making my mouth water. They were so fucking good, and it had been so fucking long since I had had chocolate... I swallowed, then turned my gaze to the boy still watching me from the other side of the room. He had drawn a salt circle around the chalk markings on the floor he had used to summon me, and though the salt would have no effect on me I decided to remain quiet about that for now.

"Oi, brat." My words were stilted, not having used English in perhaps a millennia, the last time I was summoned having been when an older German man had attempted to use me to wreck havoc on others.

He learned very quickly how much I enjoyed being ordered around like his fucking bitch.

"Y-yes! Is there something you need...? Or, um, I can turn up the heat? I don't know what you're comfortable with, I was just-"

"Calm the fuck down, idiot." His jaw shut with an audible click, and I rolled my eyes, beckoning him closer and watching him inch forward a few feet before tossing him my now empty glass and watching him fumble with it before getting a good grip on it. "Could you get me more milk?"

 

~~~

 

What surprised me the most about the kid wasn't his how large his eyes were, nor was it the fact that he had not only summoned me a second time but had found a way to make me stay. No, the one thing I wouldn't believe about the stupid looking brunet was that he didn't have a motive for summoning me. There was no one he wanted me to kill, no one he wanted me to threaten, no one he wanted to show me off to in an attempt to gain their respect or at least their fear. 

"I was bored." And that was all he would say, the words accompanied by a shrug as he slowly began to trust that I wouldn't steal his life, darting a hand out to take one of the cookies from the plate in front of me and sending me a guilty smile when I glared at him and scooted the plate closer to me. "I saw the book and thought it would be pretty cool if it actually worked."

I snorted and rolled my eyes, watching as the irritatingly taller boy flipped through the pages, his brow furrowed and his expression slipping into a frown. He paused on a page with what appeared to be instructions he had used to summon me, then continued through the book, and after a moment of silence I stood up and stretched. He paused in what he was doing, watching me curiously as I squatted back down to examine the salt circle he had drawn around me. He had scooted closer over time and was now siting directly on the other side, chewing thoughtfully on the cookie he had snatched from the plate that had laid between us, trusting in the salt he had put down to keep me contained.

"You know, kid, if you had summoned anyone other class of demon, this would've done wonders." And with that I straightened, and stepped over the salt. 

It was true I was still slightly affected by it, a wave of nausea passing through me as I stepped over it, but it passed as soon as I was over. The boy who had been watching me had begun to scramble backwards, book forgotten and tossed to the side where I moved to pick it up. I flipped through it myself, pausing on a page with a rough sketch of how I was supposed to look and barking out a short laugh at the crude features the illustrator had given me, a pig's snout and a furry chest being the most amusing parts.

"Oi, you little shit, you didn't think I'd actually look like this, did you?" I moved my gaze from the book to where the boy on question was shaking his head wildly, though his eyes, full of fear, betrayed him. "Is this what humans believe all demons look like? It's ugly as fuck, so I hope you don't assume I'll shift appearances to meet your expectations."

"N-no, of course not, you're really hot and I wouldn't want- um, oh shit, um, well, uh... You're much more attractive than the picture so please don't change...?" I regarded him silently for a moment, then stepped forward and leaned down, smirking as I lessened the distance between us until out noses were almost touching and I could see the the gold in the boy's eyes.

"Tell me, boy, what's your name?" The words came out as a purr, my voice dropping an octave as I spoke and my eyes sparkling with amusement when I drew a shiver out of the brunet I stood over.

"E-Eren..." I tilted my head to the side, moving my head so that my lips brushed against his ear with my next words and delighted with the way he once more shuddered at my voice.

"Well, Eren..." I nipped at his ear, chuckling at the low groan the action produced, and I could feel the way the young boy was heating up quickly. "I hope to see you again soon." I took his chin in my fingers as I finished speaking, moving our heads to once more face each other but not bothering to leave distance between ourselves this time. 

The kiss was hot but unhurried, and I mentally congratulated myself on being able to form a connection with my summoner so quickly, already imagining the cookies I could eat tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.

 

~~~

 

"You know, most people wouldn't show up out of nowhere and throw a sleeping person out of bed just because they wanted cookies." The words were disapproving, and I caught the brunet send me a dirty look over their shoulder as they opened the refrigerator to look for milk and eggs, but I didn't bother to defend myself as I inspected my nails, pleased that no grime had made their way under them in my time in the human's realm. "Don't you have a way you can make cookies in Hell?"

"Not Hell, kid, the Underworld. Two very different places." He twisted to look at me, one eyebrow raised, and I shrugged. "Hell doesn't exist."

"So like, no Satan, either?" I snorted, rolling my eyes and extending my arms behind me to lean back on the table I was sitting on as I watched Eren make me cookies, not having any left over from the previous day when I had apparently eaten the entire batch.

"Oh, sure, Satan's real. He shines my shoes sometimes." At the human's incredulous look I shrugged, sighing internally at the thought of the cookies being delayed because the idiot making them kept getting distracted. "He's a Fifth Rank, unimportant, powerless. Some idiot summoned him a few hundred centuries ago instead of the Third Rank they were trying to get, and Satan was able to convince the fool that he was the ruler of the Underworld. I don't know where you shits got the term Hell from, though."

"O-oh..." Eren paused, considering, then turned to fully face me. "What rank are you?"

"First. Don't piss me off." The brunet's eyes widened before he nodded hurriedly and turned back to the mess he had made on the kitchen counter, moving considerably quicker than he had been before. 

We spent the next five minutes in silence, my tail flicking side to side with a laziness that wasn't quite the boredom I suffered out of this realm and Eren only turning back around to face me once the cookies were in the oven. He watched me for a moment, and I watched him, and eventually the taller boy cleared his throat.

"Can I take a picture of you?" I raised an eyebrow, and he brought a hand up to rub at the back of his neck, clearly flustered. "I mean, well, it's not every day you see a powerful demon that totally deserves a ton of respect and stuff-" I rolled my eyes, silently mourning the loss of the way he so brazenly told me I was attractive yesterday. Power was nice, but I didn't have everyone below me in rank telling me I was hot in the underworld, and it was something I wasn't ashamed to admit that I could get used to. "-and anyway, I don't even know if you'll be back again, so-"

"I'll be back." He froze at the words, biting his lips and averting his eyes.

"U-um, when?" I considered, eyes half-lidded as I watched the flustered boy.

"Tomorrow." His eyes widened, and he began sputtering a response about school, about how he wouldn't be here, but I waved the words away and hoped off the table, tail flicking once more before I began shifting my appearance. "Oi, don't assume I'm unable to be seen in public..." By the time I had stopped speaking I had finished the change, my tail and horns hidden and my clothes more fitting to the human realm, still dark but not quite like the shadows I wore in the Underworld. Numerous piercings completed the look, and I ran a thoughtful tongue over the ones in my lip, having forgotten about them since the last time I had used this appearance.

"...Fuck." It was then that I turned my attention back to Eren, and it was then that I learned that the little shit had quite a thing for piercings.

 

~~~

 

Somehow, though I had told him I would come, he looked shocked when I showed up in his classroom the next day. Once a connection is formed between a demon and a human, the demon can switch realms with relative ease and appear in the same room as the human they share the connection with, so on my part I was a bit peeved I materialized in a nearly empty classroom instead of the boy's bedroom, as I had the previous day. I had been expecting to catch him before he left, seeing as it was still early enough the sun was just now rising, so to find him here was irritating.

"Oi, shithead, what the hell are we doing here?" He nearly fell out of his chair at my words, turning to look at me with eyes wider than usual. "Kid, you look like a fucking owl. I warned you I'd show up, so don't act so surprised."

"Yeah, but this is school, and you're a... Well, I mean, even in that form..." I snorted and rolled my eyes, deciding that the brunet's lap looked far more comfortable than the empty desks on either side of him and not hesitating to drape myself over him as I got comfortable, for once grateful for my shorter height as it allowed me to sit sideways in his lap like this comfortably, my arms slung around his neck.

"Eren..." He shuddered at his name, and I let my eyes fall almost completely shut, only a sliver of grey peering up at him expectantly. "You wouldn't want to disappoint me, right?" He shook his head fervently, and I chuckled, moving my thumb to graze the nape of his neck lightly with my nail. "Good boy. Now, explain to me just why it is that you're here at the ass-crack of dawn- I was hoping to catch you in time to ask for more cookies."

"O-oh..." He blinked, then blinked again, and I watched him curiously as he burst out laughing, then lean down to rustle through his bag for a moment before pulling out a crumpled brown paper bag. "Here- I thought you'd show up later, but I have soccer practice today, so I had brought these for you to eat while you waited. You can eat them now, though."

"Milk?" He smiled at me, a softer smile than his usual childish one, and I found myself taken aback by the expression.

"You can go get some from the cafeteria- I'll give you my card and number. All you have to do is grab a carton of milk from one of the glass displays and bring it to the cashier, alright? I lend my card to Armin enough that it shouldn't be a problem for you to use it, so don't worry about having to change your appearance to match mine or anything." I blinked, moving my gaze to where Eren was pulling out his wallet and finally removing my arms from around his neck to accept the card he gave me along with a piece of paper with a number scrawled on it. "I can't go with you, though- class is about to start. It's high school, so it always starts this early."

"Why the hell are you the only one here, then?" The brunet shrugged, putting his wallet back into his pocket.

"Mr. Pixis is always late, and everyone else likes to hang out in the courtyard before school officially starts. Mikasa's at a tournament today, though, and I think Armin had to go check his answers with the teacher to make sure he would get a hundred, so I decided to head here a bit early." I hummed shortly in acknowledgement and peered into the paper bag he had given me, absentmindedly running my tongue over the piercings in my lip before hopping off the taller boy's lap. He had mentioned the two before, so I assumed that they were his friends and didn't bother to ask to clarify. I paused before I reached the door, though, turning back with a question I had been half wondering since I had first met the kid.

"How old are you, anyway? I would've believed you were still a grade schooler from the way you acted." Eren let out a whine, pouting and obviously regretting giving me his source of food at school, and I leaned against the doorway as I waited for his answer.

"Hey! I'm not that childish..." I rolled my eyes, not speaking up but making it clear I disagreed, and the brunet let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm seventeen, so shut up. I graduate this year, and then I won't be in school at all." I raised an eyebrow, but Eren simply averted his eyes and remained silent.

I left then, not all that tempted to ask whether he meant out of just high school of out of school entirely, and enjoyed scaring the lady in the lunchroom a terrified student had shown me to. I was remembering why I chose this appearance when I needed to hide my tail and horns, finding amusement and great satisfaction in being able to scare humans even when they believed I was one of them, and I took no small pleasure in the way the filthy people in Eren's school looked the other way as I walked past.

I was less than pleased, however, when I was stopped by an older man in a dress shirt and tie who wanted to see my student ID.

"I don't have one." The man's eyes went to the card Eren had given me, and I raised it to my eyes to inspect it closer. It had a picture of the idiot, looking ridiculous with his hair half slicked back and half all over the place as it usually was, and a string of numbers along with his name and the name of what I presumed to be the school he attended. "This isn't mine."

"Then who's is it?" I shrugged, flipping the card so the man could see, and I watched his expression turn towards one of disgust. "So I can assume you are his new... Partner?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I pulled the card with Eren's picture on it back towards me as the man's expression grew disapproving, just wanting to be back where Eren and his fucking amazing cookies were.

"I'm aware that boy... Bats for the other team, as you'd say, so I was assuming for you to have his identification means you're... Well." I shrugged, once more examining the card. He really did look stupid in the picture...

"He mentioned letting the arm guy borrow it, so whatever. Can I go now? My milk won't be cold much longer." I began to turn away, not seeing the point in continuing the conversation, but was stopped by a hand on my shoulder that I knew for a fact wasn't clean enough to be touching me.

"I'm afraid you'll have to come with me, Mister..." I said nothing, not really having a last name to give him anyway, and he cleared his throat before continuing. "You'll have to come with me. This school has strict policies on piercings and chains, and I'm not sure those spikes on your belt are quite acceptable, either. And if you're not able to prove that Mister Yeager has given you his permission to use his ID card, you'll have to be disciplined for theft, as well."

I blinked, not quite understanding why any school would bother monitoring what its students wore and not at all wanting to follow this man anywhere. I sighed, looking down at the milk carton I had gotten with mournful regret as I began to open it. There was other way to do things, I suppose...

The look of utter shock on the man's face when I dumped the milk over his head was almost worth wasting it, but I didn't have much time to enjoy the expression I had forced upon him before I was back in the Underworld, having taken advantage of the brief moment he had closed his eyes from surprise to leave the human's realm. My room on the east wing of the castle reserved for First Rank demons was hot, much hotter than world I had come from, and I sighed out of resignation. I'd simply have to wait again, the warmth festering boredom until enough time had passed I could assume Eren had returned home.

When I felt an itching tingle in the back of my mind about eight hours later, I was jolted from sleep with only enough wits about me to remember to grab the card I had thrown on my nightstand before answering the summons, immediately meeting the eyes of an anxious brunet in serious need of a shower.

"Oh thank God-" I winced at the title, but Eren didn't seem to catch it. "I thought for sure someone had caught you and turned you in or the government had found you or... Or... I don't know! Maybe you got lost on your way to some cookie gathering you heard about!"

"Those exist?" My words were met with stunned silence, and after a moment the taller boy groaned as he dragged a hand over his face.

"You're hopeless..." I shrugged, finally moving to get closer to the brunet and handing him the card he had given me earlier.

"Here. Some old fart wanted to take me away for dressing in a manner he didn't like. He also said if I couldn't prove we were fucking I'd be blamed for stealing this from you." I watched as Eren's face grew impossibly red as he took the card from me and tucked it back into his wallet, letting out a long sigh as he did so.

"Though I doubt those were his exact words, I sincerely hope you didn't tell him we were." I smirked, leaning into the brunet's personal space and getting as close as I dared with his skin sweaty and not at all as shower-fresh as it had been this morning.

"Oh? Would you have been displeased if I had? I would've thought you would've been pleased..." I blew lightly on one of his ears, irritation from earlier in the day having completely slipped away now that I was back to being able to tease the idiot who had summoned me, and said idiot let out a low whine.

"No fair..." He swallowed, eyes shut tight, and I leaned back to take in my work before humming shortly and turning to leave for the stairs that led up to the rest of the house, tail flicking behind me. I had let my appearance shift back into my original form when I had fallen asleep earlier and not bothered to shift back, but I changed appearances before I reached the bottom of the stairs in case Eren's family was home. I was stopped by a shout, though, and I turned to raise a questioning eyebrow at the boy behind me.

"What? If the teasing bothers you that much, go find a different demon- I'm having much too much fun to stop now." The human sputtered, jaw working for a moment before he finally shut his mouth and cleared his throat and tried again.

"No, that's not... That's not what I was going to say. I don't mind the, uh... The teasing." He swallowed, then began again. "I just realized that I still don't know your name. I mean, I realized it earlier, it's not like this is the first time, but it just kind of occurred to me again and I was wondering if you could help me out-" He cut himself off, frowning and looking down at his shoes.

"Don't look so fucking constipated, kid. I forgot you can't read the inscriptions you write each time you try to summon me." He blinked, surprised, and I rolled my eyes. "What the fuck did you think you were writing? Haikus? It's my name, you idiot. Levi."

"O-oh..." He blinked rapidly for a few seconds, then looked up to me, blinding grin stretched from ear to ear. "Well, then, Levi, would you join us for dinner?"

 

~~~

 

I had learned that night that I was more than willing to eat just about anything that kid would make, whether it was chocolate chip cookies or not, and after mentioning that there wasn't any food in the Underworld I was being sent back with a packed meal every night. Free meals turned into free cooking lessons, and within a couple weeks of everyday visits we were spending afternoons in the kitchen, Eren instructing me on how to help him make dinner for that night. I didn't always stay for the actual meal, sensing the discomfort I caused his father and the hatred his sister felt for me and not wanting to be banished from the one place I was able to entertain myself.

For the first time, I had been summoned by someone who had no intentions of just using me, and as time went by I stopped visiting simply to amuse myself. There was the movie he had taken me to a week ago on opening night, his eyes glowing with excitement even in the darkness of the theater I had decided to ignore the filth of, and the parks and bowling alleys he took me to once I had accidentally given away how curious I was about how the human's realm had changed since I had last visited. The boy seemed to view me as another human being, an equal, and months passed by the teasing touches and sultry words I once spoke to him to mess with him began to lessen in number. 

If the boy would treat me as an equal, something I had never desired but now craved, I would do the same.

For amusement, of course.

"Hey, Levi?" I glanced up from the handheld console he had given me a while back to play with while he was working on homework and I was too stubborn to return to the Underworld, the screens full of colors and sounds as I had to go through different worlds to defeat the villains. It was mindless fun, and I was positive Eren wouldn't be getting his small video game machine back anytime soon.

"If you're going to say something stupid, don't say it." The brunet sighed, leaning back in the chair at his desk, pencil in hand but obviously forgotten.

"Graduation is next week. It's a big deal." He swallowed thickly, glancing back at me before he looked down at his lap. "I was wondering if you would, um, go. You know, to cheer me on, and stuff."

"No." I didn't bother looking up from my game, tail flicking side to side partly out of irritation and partly just because there wasn't much time anymore when I was able to stay in my original form. The taller boy's family wasn't home yet, though, and the window of his room faced the fenced in backyard, so for now I was able to let my tail and horns show.

"But-"

"Waste of time. You're just going to get a piece of paper, right? You don't even have to show up- they'll still find a way to give you your paper." The room was silent save for the quiet music coming from the game I was playing, and after a long moment the sound of pencil against paper finally started up again. He didn't say anything to me, simply worked in silence, but the one time I glanced up he seemed to be struggling with something internally.

His fucker of a math teacher must've given him some really hard shit.

 

~~~

 

"Wait, wait- let me get this straight. Levi, the great and powerful First Rank demon with no friends and an obsession with cleanliness, is upset because a human boy isn't ranting to you about his life." I growled, frustrated, and the Second Rank demon sitting across from me in my bed leaned away slightly as my tail whipped back and forth.

"I'm not upset. I'm irritated." The brunette tilted her head up, looking skeptical, and the light bounced off her glasses in a way that wasn't far from blinding.

"About a human boy not talking to you." I ran a hand through my already mused hair, frustrated that this wasn't going anywhere.

"No, fuck, I mean, he's talking to me. But he's only greeting me and saying stuff like, 'here's your food,' so it's-"

"He gives you food?" I fell onto my back with a groan, and Hanji sighed. "Look, Levi, I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what the problem is. From what you're telling me, even if he's become more reserved, he's still putting up with you more than any other human in the past- more than you've let any other human in the past."

"Fine, whatever. Maybe. But that's not the fucking point!" Hanji's glasses glinted again, and I looked away.

"The point is that you're lonely." I growled again, blue flame beginning to lick at the base of my horns, and Hanji put her hands up in defeat.

"I'm not lonely!" The words were snapped out with a note of finality, and as the flames began to die I crossed my arms petulantly. "He just... He might break the connection if things keep up like this."

"How'd you form the connection in the first place? You usually do it by intimate contact, right? Which is, by the way, another sign of being lonely." At my warning glance she once more out her hands up, but I knew I wouldn't be hearing the end of this anytime soon. "Look, Levi, if this human really is just a boy, he's probably confused. Intimate contact is called intimate for a reason, and from my research humans take that sort of thing seriously. For you to initiate it and then act like, well, like you, he's probably just not understanding as to your real feelings towards him."

"He's a brat." The glasses-clad demon raised an eyebrow, and I scowled. "He's irritating."

"Yet you keep going back..." I frowned, thinking the answer to that unspoken question was obvious.

"He makes really fucking good food."

 

~~~

 

Hanji had stayed the night that evening, the conversation drifting away to other topics but always somehow coming back to Eren. She seemed convinced that if I was concerned about him breaking the connection then I needed to show the kid that I cared for him in some way, but that idea was quickly put down. Permanently. 

I didn't care for him, anyway, so how would I show him that I did?

Apparently, the answer was inviting him to the Underworld.

"W-what?" His expression was one of shock, though I wasn't sure if it was due to what I had said or just because I had said anything at all.

"Come back with me tonight. I'll show you around." His eyes seemed to be wider than they usually were, though with their unusually large size it was hard to tell, and it seemed as if, at least for the moment, there was no way he'd be able to speak. I sighed, picking at a loose thread on my shirt before switching appearances into my original form so that I wouldn't have to look at it. "You got your piece of paper yesterday, right?"

"R-right..." He swallowed, then cleared his throat. "I thought... I thought you didn't care. Waste of time."

"It was." His brow furrowed, and I sighed at the look of hurt that never seemed to have gone away since I had originally declined his offer. "But I suppose if you had to put up with the shit the one old fart gave me when I went with you that once, and you put up with it for four years... It's kind of a big deal. A little bit."

I glanced up once I had finished speaking, meeting eyes that were glassy and flinching at the sight. Shit, fuck, don't hate me, don't break the connection-

"Thank you, Levi." The words were soft, not at all mad, and I relaxed at the sound of them. "I'd love to go with you, if you don't mind me spreading my human filth all over your home."

"Tch." I looked away, unable to meet his eyes anymore and unsure why. "As if the stench you rub off on me doesn't end up everywhere anyways."

He smiled softly, the same soft smile I had grown to fear, and I once more averted my eyes, regretting ever having dared to glance back at him. That smile terrified me, scared me as I had no way to react to it and the stupid way it made my chest seen tighter than it should be. It didn't matter, though, because he was smiling at me, and I didn't have to worry about him breaking the connection anymore- I was safe.

My anxiety came back with a vengeance, however, as we waited for Eren's family to go to bed to creep down to his basement where I could use the scrawled symbols he had used to summon me to take us both back to the Underworld. What if he hated it? What if he got hurt there? What if he regretted going with me at all and decided to break the connection? 

I jumped when he placed a hand on my shoulder, both of us standing over the pentagon he had drawn but not yet in the Underworld due to my shitty indecisiveness, and I averted my eyes when he shot me a concerned look. This was stupid, I was being stupid, and with that I took a final breath of cool air before shifting realms, one hand wrapped around Eren's wrist to drag him with me.

The heat and sulfuric smell hit us hard, and I turned to the brunet when I heard him break into a coughing fit. I panicked, thinking that at any moment he would drop dead and I'd be one connection short of being able to go back to the human's realm, and did the one thing I could think of to do: swat his hands away from his mouth and replace them with my lips, forcing his mouth open so I could breath into him. He squirmed beneath the hold I had placed on him, one hand firmly keeping his head in place while the other gripped his shoulder and forced him not to move, but after a long moment he grew still and let me help him. It took some time to stabilize, but after I had given the ability to breath here to the taller boy I pulled away, wiping at my mouth with mild disgust before meeting his eyes with one eyebrow raised at the dazed look on his face.

"Don't pass out, kid. This isn't exactly the safest place to be." He blinked, then seemed to focus on me, and it was me who averted my eyes when he grinned at me.

"Ah, but I have a First Rank demon to protect me, don't I?" I grunted, crossing my arms.

"Keep it up with the attitude and you won't." He laughed, happy and innocent and a sound never heard in the Underworld, and I led him around my home, so different and hateful compared to his. He never complained, though, looking fascinated by everything and greeting the stunned demons that we ran into. 

None of them said a word to me, simply looking at me in utter confusion when a human, bright and peppy and alive, began blabbering on about being brought here by me. I would flip them off, they would look away out of fear they had pissed off a First Rank demon, and we would continue on. When he grew somber, however, the anxiety I had let go of came back tenfold, and I hovered over the boy who had dropped to a crouch, unsure of what to do.

He was kneeling in front of a pond, large and glassy and full of the souls of the humans who had passed away. I had named it, explained it, and been ready to move on, but Eren, however... 

"Do all... Do all human souls come here? Good and bad?" I blinked, taken aback at the question, and looked out at the lake.

"What makes you think that there are good and bad souls? They're all the same, really, but some human minds are more fucked up then others. If we were collecting minds instead of souls, perhaps then we'd judge them, but souls are all identical in the end." I looked back down at the brunet, but his gaze was fixed on the lake.

"So... None of these souls remembers their lives?" I cocked my head, curious as to the train of thought that was bring about these questions. 

"No. None of them do." He looked crestfallen at the words, and after a long moment I remembered the family photos I had seen once on the mantle in his house.

I didn't remember ever meeting the woman that had seemed to be the mother.

"Do you want to meet her?" Eren looked up, brow furrowed in confusion. "Your mother. She's dead, isn't she?"

"I... Yeah. She died from pneumonia when I was eleven." I nodded then extended a hand to the brunet.

"Come on, then, kid. Staring at the lake won't do shit, but I can take you some place that it just might." He stared at the offered hand for a long moment before he hesitantly took it, letting me hoist him up onto his feet. When I tried to take my hand back, however, he held onto it tightly, head turned away so that I couldn't meet his eyes as he laced our fingers together and held on tightly, obviously scared I'd pull away.

I sighed, then turned to lead him away from the lake, not bothering to fight for my hand's freedom- the idiot kid was probably scared, I supposed.

It didn't take long to get to the empty shadow, a long crevice in the ground extending down forever and holding the memories of the dead. I wasn't sure if it was exactly what Eren was looking for, but it was better than just watching him look at a big puddle full of souls. He kneeled by the shadow carefully, uncertainly, finally releasing my hand and allowing me to step back. I may be shit at most social situations, but even I could tell that this was a moment the human needed to himself.

"...Mom?" His voice was soft, sad and careful and hopeful, and I found myself backing away a bit more. "It's me, Eren..."

For a long, long moment, it seemed as if nothing was going to happen. The shadow remained still, the air remained hot, the Underworld carried on, a single human's life unimportant. I had no control over the memories pooled here, First Rank demon or not, and for the first time in my life I felt utterly useless. I couldn't help this boy, couldn't help the idiot who had summoned me months ago and had been fool enough to let me stick around, and for some reason that did a peculiar thing to my heart.

And then, without any warning, a hot breeze played with our hair and welcomed us, and our minds became full of memories that weren't ours. Afternoons spent cleaning, evenings spent reading to two young children, a familiar looking brunet with sparkling eyes asking if he could help cook dinner. Watching the children from the window as they played tag with their friend, cleaning cuts and bruises after the spirited brunet came home from a fight again, requesting the mild-tempered raven haired girl to .

Lying in bed, knowing death was coming, and telling an anxious looking set of children that everything would be okay, that colds had never killed anyone before and they wouldn't start now.

Feeling the last threads of life slip away, and loving those children more than ever before.

Eren was crying by the time the memories receded, leaving our minds ours and allowing me to blink away the emotions that had come connected to the memories shown to us, and I let out a heavy sigh at the sight of the taller boy. He held his face close to the ground, shoulders shaking, sobbing silently as he rocked back and forth just slightly. It had been too much, too much for him to handle even though he had asked for it, and I found myself regretting ever taking Eren here in the first place. I could've found a different way to stabilize the connection between us, could've done so many things differently to avoid this, to avoid the brunet that was usually so happy sprawled across the ground of the Underworld and bawling his eyes out, to avoid-

That same brunet, having flung himself at me, wrapping his arms around my waist and squeezing me impossibly tight as he buried his face in the crook of my neck, tears and snot rubbing against my skin and causing me to grimace. I wasn't sure how to react, only then realizing how careful the taller boy had been to never be the one to initiate physical contact, only then realizing that I had never been touched by a human in such a way at all. He was warm, a different warmth from the arid heat that I lived in, and he was alive, alive in a way that I'd never be even though I had a heartbeat, and though I expected those things to scare me I found myself lulled into a sense of security instead. 

"T-thank you, thank- thank you, Le-Levi thank you, th-thank yo-ou Levi, thank y-you so mu-much..." I sighed at his words, not saying anything in response and instead slowly bringing my arms up to return the embrace, deciding to forgive the mess he was making on my shoulder.

We stood like that for a long, long time, my horns gently knocking against his head from time to time and my tail curling with a lazy contentedness that I'd never admit to. Eren's breathing eventually did steady, his eyes eventually dried, and when he finally pulled away he was able to smile without it looking pained.

"Thank you, Levi... That... That meant the world to me." He cleared his throat, rubbing at one arm and looking the happiest I had ever seen him. "Best graduation present ever."

 

~~~

 

After that day spent on the Underworld together, Eren began to change. I hadn't ever noticed it, not really caring to before, but the brunet's relationship with his family had been subpar, and I could assume that it had begun to go to shit after his mother had passed away. Now, though, it wasn't uncommon that he'd invite his sister to make dinner with us, Eren now having two raven-haired companions to teach instead of just one foul mouthed one. She hadn't been too keen on me at first, but slowly that began to change, too. 

She gave Eren self defense lessons in exchange for the cooking ones he gave her, and after watching a few of these lessons and the reckless way the taller boy threw himself at his opponent I walked over to him and cuffed him over the head, telling him not to be such a dumb shit and that fighting was about more than just strong hits. His sister had raised an eyebrow at me, and as I corrected Eren's form and told him to use his head for once her expression grew less hostile and more curious. She began sparring with me, too, after that, and after a couple weeks conversation between the two of us was less tense and more relaxed.

Grisha, the kids' father, began to spend more time at home, and the times I spent dinner with the three of them became more and more frequent as they all seemed to see me as more and more of a good thing.

A demon, as ironic as it was, accepted as the thing that had turned things around for them, as the thing that had fixed them.

I had laughed at those words, Eren looking embarrassed and not at all as thoughtful as he had when he had spoken them, and I ruffled his hair and told him I had been deceived- he had been a grade schooler all this time, foolish and ignorant of the things that made up the world that weren't the perfect things he wanted them to be. I was still a demon, a monster that was summoned for killings and genocides, and even if I hadn't killed a human in a few centuries I was still more than capable of it.

"You're different, though." I had quirked an eyebrow, and he had smiled that terrifying soft smile at me. "You've changed, I think, from when I first summoned you. You're kinder."

And though I had scoffed and called him an idiot, he wasn't the only one to comment on it. Hanji was delighted I was allowing her to visit more often, asking to meet whoever this human boy was that had saved me from the lonely mean thing I had been before, and I was beginning to suspect that perhaps there had been a grain of truth behind her words after all.

I was letting the human do things to me, things I hadn't let anyone do to me before, human or not, and I found I didn't hate it. The touches that lingered longer than they should, the teasing I wouldn't endure from anyone else, the lack of distance between us even when the entire couch was free or there were other places to sit besides next to me. We walked side-by-side instead of with Eren leading and me trailing slightly behind like we used to, our shoulders brushing against each other and, every so often, Eren's hand slipping into mine.

"You've been spending an awfully long time in that form, Levi." The words had startled me, and I looked down at myself to find the form I took when around Eren, the form that could fool the world I was human. I spoke without thinking, without realizing what I was muttering as a response until it had already been said, and Hanji seemed to fall into a thoughtful silence at my words.

"Eren likes it." Because he did, I knew he did, but as embarrassing and confusing as the response was, even to myself, the owner of all the feelings I couldn't decipher, I knew there was another answer, an answer I didn't want to know was there.

It made me feel human.

Made me feel as if I was one of them, one of the filthy stupid creatures I used to despise and still did most of the time, made me feel like I was fit to live in their realm. Made me feel as if I was fit to live with Eren.

Made me feel as if what was happening between us was acceptable.

But it wasn't, I knew it wasn't, and I couldn't fool myself by hiding my tail and horns and pretending I hadn't killed thousands. There was always a voice in the back of my mind reminding me, though, forcing me to turn away when the brunet I had accidentally grown too fond of leaned in too close.

"This can't happen, Eren." The words were soft, sad, because I desperately wanted to accept the kiss he would've given me if I hadn't stopped him and it hurt, hurt more than I thought it would. "I'm a demon, a murderer. I've lived a thousand times what an average human's life span is and I'll continue to live, immortalized, while you grow old and different and then die."

"I'm not dead or old now, though." And he wasn't, and I let out a frustrated growl because he was closer, now, and he smelled like home. 

"Eren, please-"

"I'm not going to let you say no just because I'm a human, Levi. I know you're not indifferent, you've changed..." I growled again, frustrated, and without knowing what else to do I fell back on the one thing that had always saved me before: fear, intimidation. My mind hurt from denying Eren, from denying myself, from the horrible feeling in my guy telling me that it was a terrible idea to try to scare the brunet into backing off-

I had shifted appearances before I could think about it, horns curved and large and tail pointed and swinging back and forth as I allowed the mess of emotions I felt light the blue fire that consumed me when I let this form take over. My teeth grew more pointed, my tongue forked and black, an anguished scream making its way out of my throat as my hands came up to tear at my hair and my eyes squeezed shut. I didn't have to see him to know, though, smelling his fear and hating it and myself with a passion I hadn't felt before I met this stupid kid, this wonderful stupid kid.

"Send me back, Eren!" My words were distorted, hissed and screeched and cracked, the voice of a demon, and I felt his presence recoil. "Send me back to Hell!"

"Hell doesn't exist, Levi..." I opened my eyes, meeting emerald orbs that were clouded by fear and worry, and at the sight I shut my eyes again. I wanted this, I wanted him to fear me, wanted to make him send me back...

"The Underworld is Hell!" My anger was fading, and I could feel the flames that enveloped my body beginning to burn out. "At least to me..."

And then he was hugging me, the same crushing hug from after he had seen the memories of his dead mother, except now it was me who was being comforted, me who was hiding, me who was trying so desperately not to cry. The fire had vanished completely, though I doubted that would've stopped the brunet even if I had still been roaring with fury. My features were softening, too, I could feel it- I was switching appearances, because somewhere along the line my human form had become more comfortable than my demon one.

"I won't send you back, never." I knew he wouldn't, too, and he knew I knew and for the first time since I had been spawned by the world's malice and hate and fear I didn't feel lonely. 

When I pulled away to look at him, face still tear streaked and revealing just how shitty I felt and not at all keeping up the facade I had always been so careful with, he smiled at me, that stupid soft smile, and I smiled back. It felt foreign, smiling, and though I knew it looked strained and broken I decided I wanted to try smiling more often. One of Eren's hands came up to gently hold the back of my head, and I leaned into the touch, trying not to reveal how much I liked it but not really giving a damn either way at this point.

"Now, are you going to let me kiss you?" I chuckled at the taller boy's words, moving my hands from where they had clenched around the brunet's shirt to loop around his neck. "I feel horribly deprived."

"You little shit-"

I didn't get even another syllable out, lips pressed firmly against the slightly chapped ones of the human boy I had fallen so hopelessly in love with, and it was me who had crashed our lips together. I found myself laughing against his mouth when I caught him playing with the piercings in my lip, but I didn't really mind. I didn't mind the way he proudly showed me off to his family that evening, either, his sister and father simply rolling their eyes and muttering a not-so-quiet 'about time', either, nor did I mind when he insisted I spent that night with him, or the way he practically cuddled me to death when I agreed.

I didn't really mind much at all, really, so long as Eren's warmth and life was so close and the Hell he had saved me from was far, far away.

 

FINIS

**Author's Note:**

> I know what the general opinion about wattpad is (that it's a breeding ground for horrible one direction fanfic trash), but if you enjoyed this I shamelessly promote my account there: same user, just a whole ton more ereri goodness than what I post here on AO3.


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